


Worth More

by Icka M Chif (mischif)



Category: Dragons: Riders of Berk (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Episode Related, Family, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-26 01:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/960115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischif/pseuds/Icka%20M%20Chif
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dagur the Deranged makes Stoick... uncomfortable. And not just because he's crazy. </p><p>Spoilers for '<a href="http://howtotrainyourdragon.wikia.com/wiki/Twinsanity">Twinsanity</a>'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth More

Dagur the Deranged makes Stoick... uncomfortable. 

It’s not the fact that Dagur all but admitted to killing his father, Oswald the Agreeable, who was Stoick’s good friend. Stoick’s a Chieftain, he understands Viking politics. 

It’s not the battle lust, although it does put him on edge. Or the casualness of his cruelty. 

It’s the reflection between Hiccup and Dagur that he can’t stand. 

Such as the resigned look on Hiccup’s face as Dagur throws a dagger at Hiccup’s head without warning, not out of merriment, but with intent to kill. And Hiccup merely dodges and accepts it, as if this is part of his due. 

And the knowledge that the previous year, Stoick would have laughed, and told them to go off and play, knowing that it meant that Dagur was most likely going to inflict serious bodily harm on his son. And Stoick would encourage it in the name of making his son tougher. Making him a proper Viking. 

It’s watching Dagur gleefully beg to kill the Thorston twins’ Zippleback, and the realisation that less than a year ago, he would have nudged Hiccup and demanded to know why his gentle son couldn’t be more like Dagur. 

It’s the laughing way that Hiccup mentions Dagur trying to drown him, and suddenly remembering Hiccup returning home the previous year, his lips blue from cold, as he stood there soaking wet and shivering. And Stoick hauling Hiccup to the fire to get warm, deriding him for not being strong enough. 

The memory of waking up to Hiccup screaming every night for a week afterwards, that he couldn’t breathe, because he was being held under the water until he blacked out. And Stoick telling his son to quit exaggerating, get over it, and go back to sleep. Then Stoick rolling over in bed and falling back asleep himself. 

It’s looking at Dagur and realising how much Stoick himself has changed. That the crazed blood thirstiness that Dagur displays now turns his stomach.

It’s the sickening realisation that a year ago, Stoick had quietly wished that Dagur had been born his son and heir to the tribe, not Hiccup. 

His amazing son, who is a complete failure as a traditional Viking. Because Hiccup was meant for greater things than slaying dragons. 

Hiccup the Dragon Rider, the Tamer, the Inventor, the Peacemaker. 

Stoick doesn’t understand his son. He privately acknowledges never has, and he probably never will, because how Hiccup’s brain works is completely beyond Stoick’s comprehension. The rest of the tribe’s as well. 

Stoick had previously thought that Hiccup’s unwillingness to fight and kill made him weak and naive, but now Stoick wonders if it were not he that was the naive one all along. 

Bloodthirstiness is not strength. Insanity is not strength. Berserker Rage is not strength.

It has been a long time coming, the understanding that because Hiccup wishes to avoid conflict or harming another does not make him weak. Hiccup can fight when he needs to, can even kill, but with all his heart, he does not wish to do these things. 

That’s been Hiccup’s strength all along. 

However, it is not Stoick’s strength. 

Killing is. 

The knowledge of when and where it is necessary to kill is what makes Stoick a good leader. It is not an easy lesson to learn, and a difficult one to accept the consequences of. 

But as Stoick pulls his sword to lay down the killing blow before Dagur kills the Thorston twins’ Zippleback with the understanding that it could very well mean war between his tribe and the Berserkers, he wonders how he could have ever though such a rotten stinking pile of worm dung was worth more than his precious son. 

-fin-


End file.
